Biographer describes background of Wallace’s segregation speech

Friday

Jan 18, 2013 at 12:01 AM

MONTGOMERY | The year 1963 marked a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement, with events in Alabama at the forefront.

By Dana BeyerleMontgomery Bureau Chief

MONTGOMERY | The year 1963 marked a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement, with events in Alabama at the forefront.The year began with new Gov. George C. Wallace’s Jan. 14 “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever” speech.The year included Wallace’s infamous “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door” in June at the segregated University of Alabama, where the governor symbolically opposed a federal order to enroll two blacks students.In September, four black girls were killed when dynamite was detonated at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham.On Thursday at the Alabama Department of Archives and History’s Architreats program, Wallace biographer and historian Dan Carter explained the background of Wallace’s speech, which contained major contributions by the late racist, libertarian and anti-communist writer Asa Carter.Dan Carter wrote, “The Politics of Rage: George Wallace, the Origins of the New Conservatism and the Transformation of American Politics,” among other books.Dan Carter said Asa Carter penned major portions of Wallace’s speech, which transformed the governor from being one of the most racially liberal politicians. “His speech had to do with the defense of segregation,” Dan Carter said.The brief portion of Wallace’s 17-page speech that made the television network news was: “In the name of the greatest people that ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny. I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever.”The speech included departures from Asa Carter’s rants to include Wallace saying he wanted to help blacks. But that wasn’t what his speech was remembered for, Dan Carter said.Dan Carter said Wallace was one of the “great caravan of Dixie demagogues.”“It is the one thing that George Wallace is most remembered for,” Dan Carter said.“It’s difficult to put ourselves back in what it was like in the late 1950s and early 1960s,” Dan Carter said. “Even though he was a racial moderate in his life, it was always within the system of segregation.”Wallace was elected in 1962 after losing the 1958 governor’s race to John Patterson.“Politicians see their job to represent the people and, in the case of George Wallace in 1962, the white people, he was representing them,” Dan Carter said. “When black people began demanding rights, there was no question he had this visceral response, this anger and frustration.”Asa Carter “disappeared” and in the 1970s re-emerged as Forrest Carter to write novels, including “The Rebel Outlaw, Josey Wales,” the basis for a Clint Eastwood movie.“Asa Carter was an absolute doctrinaire libertarian who hated government,” Dan Carter said. He died in the late 1970s.Wallace, who died in 1998, served as governor four times. His last two terms included significant support by blacks, whom he had asked for forgiveness for his segregationist past.Wallace was shot in 1972 while campaigning for president. The shooting left him paralyzed, and he used a wheelchair.“It certainly changed him,” Dan Carter said. “The family points out it made him a different person.”Dan Carter said Wallace had already begun changing to suit the political winds that no longer saw racism as popular or morally correct.“He, like any good political figure, picked up on the wind, and when the wind changed, he did,” Dan Carter said. “I think he was sincere about it.”He said that even during his segregationist period, if Wallace spoke at a country club, he made it a point to go into the kitchen and speak and greet the black cooks and help.“Racism wasn’t that deep in him,” said Dan Carter. “He wanted everyone to love him. I think he always tried to temper that talk, and that’s why he wanted to put in those sections (in his speech) about helping black folks.“There are many things that Wallace did for the state, but I think it was flawed in part by the corruption involved, a fair amount of that,” Dan Carter said. “I think that whole turning of almost every issue into a political issue damaged Wallace’s efforts, probably hurt the state.”